15 Players the Pittsburgh Steelers gave up on way too soon

Johnny Unitas had limited days in Pittsburgh that left many imagining what could have been

Hindsight is always much clearer than when you are looking at the task at hand. Back in 1955 when the Steelers drafted Johnny Unitas in the ninth round of the draft, the club was a laughingstock of the league. They had not won anything of importance and were struggling to keep players on their team and joining rival football leagues.

Their popularity in the city that they called home was non-existent, but there was slight hope of taking the local hometown quarterback in the draft. Sadly, for the Steelers, they gave up way too easily on Unitas and let him go and he would work construction and play in a semi-professional league for the time being.

He eventually got a chance to play for the Baltimore Colts and the rest is history. He would go on to have a Hall of Fame career that included winning three NFL Championships, a Super Bowl, and three league MVPs. With all that success, it makes you wonder what could have changed with the Steelers as an organization if they kept the hometown kid at that training camp.

Perhaps Unitas turns out to be nothing in Pittsburgh and maybe he needed to be elsewhere to succeed. Or maybe he helps to turn the organization around and makes them championship material for the nation to see. He could have popularized football in the Steel City, but that reality is one we do not live, and the world will never know what Unitas as a Steeler would have looked like.